Kilian Jornet Burgada from Spain raises his arms as he crosses the finishing line to win the men's category during the 36nd Sierre-Zinal Long Distance Mountain Running Championsship in Zinal on 1680 meters above sea level, Switzerland,Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. Runners start in Sierre for a 31 kilometers long race, rise 2000 metres before coming down 800 metres for finishing in Zinal in the Swiss Alps. Around 3000 participants start each year at the competition. Kilian Jornet Burgada from Spain wins the men's category with a time of 2 hours and 35 minutes and Anna Pichtrova from Czech Republic wins the women's category with a time of 2 hours and 58 minutes.

From left, Ted Mahon, Jason Poole and Darcy Africa make their way up 12,592-foot Stony Pass during the 2013 Hardrock 100.

He has summited Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak at 19,341 feet, in a record 5 hours, 23 minutes. Three weeks ago, he climbed atop North America’s highest peak, Mount McKinley in Alaska, in just under 12 hours, crushing the previous best mark by five hours.

Now, Kílian Jornet Burgada of Catalonia in Spain is setting his sights on the most difficult endurance run in the United States, the Hardrock 100, which starts and ends in Silverton and traverses the San Juan Mountains through towns including Telluride and Ouray. The course ascends nearly 34,000 feet over 100.5 miles at an average elevation of 11,000 feet, topping out at the 14,048-foot Handies Peak. Most competitors will see the sun rise twice; the winner will finish in about 24 hours.

Hardrock is nearly as difficult to finish as it is to get into. Jornet, 26, who has shattered mountaineering speed records around the world, applied in 2012 and 2013 but wasn’t selected from the lottery, used to fill all but two of 140 spots. The male and female winners automatically qualify for the next year.

This year, Jornet will be racing in the most competitive field in the run’s 20-year history. But some of ultrarunning’s most well-known athletes won’t be, left on the wait list as this run — like many other ultras in the U.S. — copes with unprecedented demand.

“Hundred-milers now are what marathons used to be,” said Dale Garland, Hardrock 100 race director. “Once you get into road racing, your major goal is a marathon. And then once you get into trail running or ultradistance running, then the 100-mile distance is the race you want to finish.”

About 1,200 people applied for Hardrock this year, a 50 percent increase in applications in one year. Because of limits on the run’s permit with the Bureau of Land Management, organizers don’t plan to expand the field beyond 140.

By contrast, the Leadville 100 — Colorado’s other major ultramarathon — allowed 946 runners a year ago, up from 788 in 2012 and 612 in 2011. The Western States 100, held in Squaw Valley, Calif., in late June, had 2,760 applicants for 270 lottery slots.

While more and more ultras are popping up across the country, it’s difficult to know how many, because there’s no official sanctioning body for the sport.

Unforeseen difficulties

Last year, Leadville’s decision to expand its field backfired: The narrow trails and roads were jammed with support crews for runners, their vehicles and pacers for those runners. Trash, including fecal matter in some places, littered the course, and some aid stations ran out of supplies. Support crews couldn’t reach aid stations to provide relief for their athletes, and pacers — who jump in for brief periods during the race to accompany athletes on the trail — couldn’t reach their runners.

“The trail over Hope Pass, it’s a fairly skinny trail, and the two-way traffic (of runners going up and down) was a bit cumbersome,” said Fort Collins’ Nick Clark, who finished second in Leadville in 2013 and applied to get into Hardrock this year, but was wait-listed. “My pacer was clearing traffic the entire way back.

“It’s a race (newer runners) aspire to. They’re not getting the experience I got when I got into the sport. It’s a very grassroots activity that was rooted in tradition of respecting wild places and wilderness areas.”

For a sport with humble roots, handling the explosion in interest can be jarring. New entrants coming from a road racing background are used to running through a water station, swigging Gatorade, eating an energy bar, and throwing the cup and wrapper to the ground and moving on. For a 100-mile race, that doesn’t work.

“One of the challenges is … to help them develop an appreciation or mind-set of what trail running is about,” Garland said. “It was easy for us at the beginning because there was a shared mentality and value system. And now, it’s a lot different, and we have to work at creating culture and creating awareness.”

Many races, including Hardrock and Western States, don’t allow first-time ultrarunners for safety reasons. And both still require entrants to complete several hours of community service before running, whether working to improve a trail or volunteering at another ultra.

Leadville stays wide open

Sticking with race founder Ken Chlouber’s vision, Leadville remains open to all runners, regardless of experience. Chlouber began the race in 1983 with 45 runners to try to boost economic development in Leadville, which had lost its biggest employer, the Climax mine, after it closed. Hosting a 100-mile race, he reasoned, would require runners to stay overnight in the town and spend money on lodging and food.

The race steadily grew, and in 2010, Chlouber sold it for an undisclosed amount to Life Time Fitness Inc., a publicly traded company. Chlouber now serves as a consultant to the series.

The damage, which both Chlouber and race director Josh Colley readily acknowledge and promise will be corrected at this year’s event, led Hardrock’s board of directors to take the unusual step of banning Leadville as a qualifier for 2015 and beyond. Because of timing, the 2013 Leadville edition was still accepted for 2014.

The decision came in part because Leadville’s course profile doesn’t translate to predicting success at Hardrock. But the board also said the 2013 race ignored “traits of importance to the Hardrock: environmental responsibility, support of the hosting community and having a positive impact on the health of our sport.”

“That’s an issue we’re taking very seriously,” Colley said. “We’ve brought our field down considerably from last year by about 200 people. I’m hoping (the number) stays where it is. We’re not going to ever have it happen again. The issue has more to do with crowd control. It doesn’t have to do with feet on the trail.”

Digital Director of Audience Development for MediaNews Group. He is a former senior editor, director of audience development, digital director of sports and social media editor at The Post. He has covered running, endurance and outdoors sports for years for The Denver Post and other publications. Outside of work, he enjoys running, cycling, snowboarding and hiking.

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